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Talk:Stalks the Shadows
Here are some basic questions and thoughts to help flesh out your character: *He's a metis: They don't lead easy lives amongst the nicest of tribes. The Shadow Lords are not known for being forgiving. So, start at the beginning: Who were his parents? What was the situation regarding his birth? Why was he allowed to live? And then, how did his metis deformity play into all of that? I'll be the first to admit metis aren't the easiest characters to play, as they require a lot more creative labor in this fashion. **Just FYI, metis aging works differently. For the sake of physical maturity, every year they live = 2 human years, until they go through their Firsting. Then they age normally. *If you're set on the idea of daily/weekly amnesia being his metis deformity, you need to come up with a reason why he hasn't been culled/killed at a young age. Perhaps someone he is related to has some political clout and had a reason to keep him alive. Maybe there is something else about him that makes him worthwhile to keep around (such as being immune to wyrm emanations, as the merit). The Garou have enough warriors to not need to worry about a metis that can't remember yesterday's lessons. Remember one of the tenets of the Garou Litany: "Do not suffer thy people to tend to thy sickness." If the character is too much a drain on Sept resources, he would have been killed with the understanding that he'd be later reborn in a better situation, simply put. **If the memory bit is not his metis deformity, then what is? Personally, I think the memory bit works better as a story-factor (perhaps the result of a battle-scar, which would be easier to explain/work with, since that would given him glory renown and the Garou would be far more likely to tolerate it if that's the case). Still, keep in mind the Litany note above. *Who is Stalks the Shadows? What are his hopes, dreams, aspirations? Why does he do what he does? Does he have a human identity? Or, more importantly, can he pass as human? If he can not, that's going to severely limit your RP ability with the character, as he will be leashed to the forest so he doesn't cause a Veil Breach. He'll still get some RP out there (I play a metis, myself, and he is somewhat limited in what he can do, but not so much that his RP is handicapped - See Rommy Akana). **For some reason, Stalks the Shadows seems like more of a Ragabash/stealthy character name to me, though I suppose it could also work for a stealthy Ahroun. The "of his mind" part I find immediately questionable, unless you could think of a reason why he would have been honorably named that (or change him to a Theurge; that is a very Theurge-y name). Keep in mind deed-names (verbs-the-noun) are given for important things a Garou does, the event of which will need to be explained in some way in the character's history. Regardless, you're going to need to truncate it in some way (Shadow-Stalker, for example) so we can fit it onto the MUSH. There's a letter-character limit, though I forget what it is off the top of my head. *In the same vein, Ahroun, being high rage, have a lot of trouble socializing with non-Garou (and even with Garou sometimes). Tack on being metis, and you've got a cocktail for a character that very possibly might not be able to effectively communicate with non-Garou at all. I'm not saying this is a bad idea per se, just that it requires more thought and rationale to make it work. Such an Ahroun would not only need to be taught how to socialize with humans, but would also need to find ways to keep his rage in check (such as meditation, certain rites like Tobacco's Calm, etc. I see you have Still Water, which is good.). I'll add some explanation regarding this to the rage page soon. Essentially, your rage = the percentage of people that are generally made uncomfortable by your mere presence (though this is can be mitigated somewhat by the calming methods mentioned). Also, for every point your Rage value exceeds your WP, you lose 1 die to all social rolls. *Why is Stalks the Shadows in Crystal Springs? This is a fairly important questions, as it will likely be your main source of RP hooks. It could be as simple as 'He heard that the Sept of the Looking Glass was looking for help and is run by a Metis, so he decided to come,' but if that's the case, given his metis deformity, how would he remember? (I know you mentioned a journal, which is a possibility, but a dangerous one. If that journal were ever lost, it could be a huge Veil Breach, which is an infraction against the Litany - but that might be an interesting risk to RP! So, it's up to you to work out the specifics). A memory-retaining fetish might also work, but as mentioned above, why anyone would bother to make him such an item would need to be well-justified. *As a final note, whatever you decide, be as informative, and yet as succinct as you can be. Rommy's app is very long but that's because he's Rank 3, and it had a lot to cover. (And I embellished a bit >.>). That said, feel free to ask me any questions on the MUSH proper. -- Fenris Stalks the Shadows is pure bred, his parents were semi-powerful and well renowned Shadow Lords, and used their influence to prevent him from being killed outright. I am writing up a bit on this right now. His amnesia isn't really his Metis deformity, it came around later for reasons he can not remember (doh!). His original tribe/pack all died, which is the only real memory he has of his past, and something about that event cause his memory problems (battle wound, psychological, spiritual, or some other influence). I'm working his tribe being wiped out into why he is in Crystal Springs, he heard of the battle there and wants to investigate to see if it is in any way related to his own displacement. Maybe it was his tribe, or maybe it can shed light on what happened to his, or maybe it is completely unrelated? His deformity is being albino, which I am also trying to work into the reason he was not killed. Maybe a minor prophesy or fortelling of a white wolf of some importance to the tribe, or even to Garou society as a whole, although importance could be in a good way or a bad way. Worthy1 17:45, July 1, 2010 (UTC) I've got his history up, although it may (probably will) need more ironing out. Let me know what you think and/or any ideas/suggestions/etc. - Worthy1 20:27, July 1, 2010 (UTC) *Here is what I typed for you on the MUSH: Okay, first thing. Pleeeease proofread. Second, you're going to need to elaborate quite a bit. Keep in mind that we're interested in cooperative storytelling here, so while I don't need minutiae, I do need details. Who were his parents and what did they do? Why did they have influence? How were they punished for charaching? And throwing a crinos into the wild is a dangerous prospect; what if he commits a Veil breach? I suppose his parents could have been tasked with looking out for him, but even if he did inordinately well by himself, I don't think the tribe would be as ecstatic to take him back as you seem to imply. I think the better plan is to just to say that he was alienated, but still allowed within the Sept for the sake of keeping the Veil. Also, what/where is the Sept? What was it like? Check out the Septs listed on the wiki for ideas, or maybe he came from one of those. **Keep in mind that even if StS was alienated in the Sept, he would have been taught the human-ways and would likely have a human identity (though perhaps illegal or not in the system at all) and some recognition of human culture, if limited. **We're going to need to work out the details of the fetish. I don't think I've ever before heard of a fetish that is impossible to remove, and designing the specifics of that is going to be difficult. It might make more sense to say that the fetish makes the wearer covet it and refuse to share it with anyone, so StS would hide it when he isn't using it so no one would try to take it away from him. Perhaps the Big Bad Thing happened when the Elders found out about the fetish and tried to take it away from him. ***The Big Bad Thing could be a Wyrm contingent that was keeping an eye on StS, and using the fetish to keep tabs on where he is. Regardless, this need to be worked out. *The specifics of his amnesia and what he does to deal with it needs to be hashed out. *There's other stuff, but that's enough to work on for now. -- Fenris. I revised the history, and tweaked the amnesia thing a bit. What about having some variation of the Iteration Infinite rite that would help steel his mind and help retain memories more easily? - Worthy1 22:28, July 1, 2010 (UTC) Getting closer, but there's still a lot of stuff up there ^ that you haven't covered. Please make sure you've given it all some thought. Like a human identity if there was one; please state as much if not. Additionally, the fetish situation is problematic. If they really wanted the fetish, they'd just kill him and take it for the safety of the Caern. The power of his parents wouldn't save him much. I think it'd be best if they didn't know about the fetish at all (StS hid it from them) until such a time as they found him using it, and dragged his ass to the council of Elders, whereat Shit Went Down. *You still haven't described what this was. *It'd be easier to say he was just being Wyrm-tainted by the Wyrm-fetish. That would make him loathe to part with it, and would make him want to hide it from everyone when he wasn't using it. Also, the fetish likely wouldn't make him immune to Wyrm-things, just resistant. But at this point that's just a mechanics issue we can work out later. Idly, *What Sept is this? Where was it located? *What /was/ his rite of passage? This is a big deal. It's where he would have gotten his name from. *Were his parents killed? If they were people of import, who were they? Please clarify. *I still don't have any real idea of StS's personality. All I know is he was just some metis who had some bad stuff happen to him. Welcome to being a metis. I need something that paints a better portrait of who StS is. Considering writing the app in a 1st person story form (or just 1st person); that might help put things in perspective. I will look over the sheet proper once the history is hammered out. -- Fenris.